Question
What are the best ways to respond humbly when someone says that you're smart?
Answer
You need a triage.
"Thanks" is usually enough for 80% of the cases that are prima facie best-faith and genuine compliments without ulterior motives.
The other 20% requires a careful examination of potential manipulation motives behind the praise, and crafting of a tactically sound response. Praise for being "smart" is among the most dangerous weapons that can be used against you (trivial example: Monday: "Man, you're the smartest data guy I know." Tuesday, "Hey, can you run this spreadsheet analysis for me?"). For this 20% there is no one-size-fits-all response. Each response must be computed on your feet, and is about as complex as an average chess move. And be careful, people who are dumb in other ways are often extremely good at playing on the vanities of smart people.
But if you get praised too often for being smart, chances are, you aren't challenging yourself enough by surrounding yourself with sufficiently smart people and/or are possibly showing off for the sake of showing off and/or are being manipulated by smarter people.
And even as I write this, the irony of this question being on Quora, the ultimate "look how smart I am" site, is making me LOL.
Reflecting on my own upvote-grubbing, "show off shamelessly for the hell of it instead of actually being helpful" answering style is making the ironic laughter upgrade from LOL to ROTFL.
"Thanks" is usually enough for 80% of the cases that are prima facie best-faith and genuine compliments without ulterior motives.
The other 20% requires a careful examination of potential manipulation motives behind the praise, and crafting of a tactically sound response. Praise for being "smart" is among the most dangerous weapons that can be used against you (trivial example: Monday: "Man, you're the smartest data guy I know." Tuesday, "Hey, can you run this spreadsheet analysis for me?"). For this 20% there is no one-size-fits-all response. Each response must be computed on your feet, and is about as complex as an average chess move. And be careful, people who are dumb in other ways are often extremely good at playing on the vanities of smart people.
But if you get praised too often for being smart, chances are, you aren't challenging yourself enough by surrounding yourself with sufficiently smart people and/or are possibly showing off for the sake of showing off and/or are being manipulated by smarter people.
And even as I write this, the irony of this question being on Quora, the ultimate "look how smart I am" site, is making me LOL.
Reflecting on my own upvote-grubbing, "show off shamelessly for the hell of it instead of actually being helpful" answering style is making the ironic laughter upgrade from LOL to ROTFL.